The sermon opens with two texts read side by side: James 4:3–5 and John 11:1–6, and frames the week ahead as a transitional Sunday before Christmas rather than a new exposition series. The preacher zeroes in on one small word in John 11:6 that, he argues, is mistranslated in both the Indonesian text and the NIV. Those versions render the connector between "Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus" and "he stayed two more days" as "yet" or "but" (namun), which produces an apparent contradiction: Jesus loved Lazarus, yet he delayed helping him. The Greek, however, uses "therefore" or "so" — a causal connector, as the ISV correctly renders it. The verse actually reads: Jesus loved them, therefore he stayed two more days. This reframing does not resolve the tension so much as deepen it: how can delaying help, allowing a loved one to die, be an expression of love?

To answer that question, the sermon takes a detour through James 4:3–5. It notes that the Indonesian and NIV translations soften the original language: "unfaithful people" is in fact "you adulterous people" in the Greek, a jarring accusation applied to prayers offered merely to gratify one's own desires. The preacher explains the marital imagery — the church as the bride of Christ — so that praying selfishly is likened to a wife asking her husband for money in order to fund an affair. Verse 5 grounds this in the character of God himself: the Spirit placed in believers "yearns jealously," meaning God, like a husband, will not tolerate rivals for the believer's ultimate affection. That jealousy extends beyond literal idols to God's own gifts and blessings: even his kindnesses must never eclipse his own Person as the object of desire. The sermon illustrates this with a story of a child overjoyed that his father came home (the presence matters more than the gift he brought) contrasted with a neighbor's child who only wants the toy and, tellingly, wishes the giver would leave again so he can bring more presents. A worship line — "I once wanted blessing, now I want the Lord; I once wanted healing, now I want the Healer" — makes the same point: spiritual maturity is marked by wanting God himself, not merely his benefits.

This is stated as the sermon's controlling theme, borrowed from the phrase "God is the gospel": the highest gift of the gospel is not forgiveness, healing, or answered prayer, but God himself. Salvation, atonement, and answered prayer all exist to remove obstacles and bring believers into God's presence, not as ends in themselves. The preacher confesses his own struggle here, admitting he sometimes measures the success of his preaching by whether people are grateful and think well of him rather than by whether God is glorified and people grow to love him more. He illustrates the danger of loving God's gifts more than God with a story of two grandfathers: one whose grandchildren visit often because he pays them, prompting the question of whether they love him or merely his money — a mirror for a faith that only pursues the Lord's help rather than the Lord himself.

Returning to John 11, the sermon locates the answer to its opening question: Jesus's delay is explained by John 11:4 — "this sickness will not end in death, but is for God's glory" — and confirmed in John 11:39–40, where Jesus tells Martha, whose brother has now been dead four days beyond any hope of natural revival, that she will see the glory of God. Love, therefore, is defined as whatever is necessary to bring people to see, know, and glorify God, even when that requires withholding immediate relief. Help that stops at meeting a felt need, without leading a person to God himself, is not true love and can even enable further harm. This is contrasted as God-centered love versus man-centered love — giving people what will most reveal God's glory rather than merely what they think they need.

The sermon closes by tying this to the doctrine of predestination in Romans 8:29 — believers are predestined to be conformed to Christ's image so that Christ would be preeminent, "the firstborn among many brothers" — and to Jesus's high-priestly prayer in John 17:24 and 17:26, where Christ asks that believers behold his glory and that the Father's own love for the Son would dwell in them. That love is described as supreme, infinite delight, the same joy the Father has in the Son, now extended to believers. Deeper knowledge of God, cultivated through obedience, prayer, and communion with him (illustrated by analogies of expertise deepening appreciation — a rock collector, a baker, a clockmaker), is what enables believers to increasingly enjoy and treasure God rather than merely his benefits. The sermon ends with a call to intercede for friends and family who have drifted from the faith, that they too would come to know, enjoy, and glorify God forever — not merely receive his help.

Bible Verses Used

• James 4:3–5: Exposes wrong motives in prayer (seeking gifts to gratify one's own desires) and God's jealous desire to be the believer's supreme love, framing the sermon's central contrast between wanting God's gifts and wanting God himself.

• John 11:1–6: The Lazarus narrative supplying the sermon's opening puzzle — Jesus's love for Lazarus and his two-day delay, corrected from "yet" to "therefore" to show the delay flowed from, rather than contradicted, his love.

• John 11:4: Jesus's statement that Lazarus's sickness serves God's glory, offered as the key that explains why the delay was loving.

• John 11:39–40: Jesus's word to Martha at the tomb that she will see God's glory, confirming that the point of the delay was to reveal glory beyond what immediate healing could show.

• Romans 8:29: Cited to show that believers are predestined to be conformed to Christ so that Christ himself would be supreme — reinforcing that God's ultimate aim in salvation is his own preeminence and glory.

• John 17:24: Jesus's prayer that his disciples would behold his glory, tying the sermon's theme of "God is the gospel" to Christ's own stated purpose for his people.

• John 17:26: Jesus's prayer that the Father's love for the Son would be in believers, used as the climactic picture of the supreme, infinite joy God intends for his people to share.